The Frozen Victim
by Pantsless Ghost
Summary: Someone has collected the ghosts again. Then a new ghost is brought to the glass house. What does the one holding them prisoner want with them if he doesn't want to open the eye. Possible Jackal/Ryan Kuhn romance. Better than it sounds I swear.
1. The Victim

The Jackal sat in his containment cube. He was bored. He looked up when he heard the ghosts closest to the stairs start to scream and hit the glass of their cells. The Jackal stood slowly as a new containment cube was pushed into the space beside his, separating him from The Angry Princess. The cube was filled with mist and he couldn't see the ghost inside.

"Ryan. Can you see who the new ghost is?" The Torn Prince called from down the hall.

The Jackal shook his head, then remembered that he was too far away for The Prince to see. "No. It's all foggy inside."

The Prince groaned. It was obvious the other ghosts were curious as to who the new ghost was, more so as there were only twelve ghost in the Black Zodiac.

Ryan pressed the front of his cage against the glass separating the two cells. He jumped back when a hand hit the glass. He moved closer again when he heard a soft voice whispering. It sounded like a girl. The mist began to fade as the voice became weaker. When the mist had fully faded the Jackal saw the cells occupant.

The bottom of the cube was covered in snow. A lot of it. A girl was leaning against the glass in one of the corners. The snow around her was stained a dark red. The girl had black hair and icy blue eyes. She wore an over-sized straightjacket, which went to her knees and nothing else. The jacket's arms had been cut open and there was thick rope tied around her wrists and ankles. Her skin was a light blue. She'd frozen to death.

Ryan laughed like the maniac he was. The girl looked up when she heard him. Down the hall Royce shook his head and turned to the Juggernaut's cell "Sounds like it's a girl. Hey Horace. How long do you think she'll last next to Ryan?"

The Juggernaut shrugged. He hadn't been there long and, having not been around long the first time he didn't know much about the other ghosts. All he really knew were the basics, like the fact Ryan was an insane rapist and murderer when he was alive.

Back down the hall the new girl was trying to stand. Ryan noticed she was rather shaky on her feet, maybe because the muscles in her legs looked rather wasted. She managed to get to her feet, but fell when the two pieces of rope around her ankles got tangled together. Ryan laughed, causing the girl to glare at him.

"Those who laugh earn themselves a Cheshire smile." She whispered softly.

Ryan covered his mouth to suppress a giggle. "What's your name?"

The girl tilted her head "My name?"

Ryan nodded "Your real name or your Zodiac name. It doesn't really matter down here."

The girl began to play with the red snow around her. "The nurse at asylum named me Tori, but the man that put me in here called me The Frozen Victim."

Ryan looked at the snow. Since he'd been able to see into Tori's cube he'd been curious about the red snow. He couldn't see any wounds on her body. Tori crawled towards him, giving up on standing. "Aren't you going to tell me your name? It's the polite thing to do."

Ryan giggled. He'd forgotten to introduce himself. "My name is Ryan, but I'm called The Jackal." Finally his curiosity got the better of him "Why is your snow turning red"

Tori looked surprised at the fact the snow were she had knelt was turning red. She pulled her legs from under her and pointed at small, but deep cuts that covered them. "Why am I not dead yet?"

Ryan tilted his head and turned towards the cell on the other side of his, which belonged to The Withered Lover. "Hey Jean. She doesn't know she's dead yet." His voice held nothing but amusement. He'd never met a ghost that thought it was alive before.

Tori screamed at Ryan and slammed her fist against the glass. She was shocked by the spells and dropped whatever she had been holding in the snow, a key. She crawled to the other side of her cell, whimpering "I'm not dead."

Jean shook her head. "You should be more considerate of others Ryan. She's properly scared and you're not helping."

Dana put a hand to the glass separating her from Tori and attempted to wipe away the blood so she could see better. Tori looked at her when she saw the movement. Dana smiled at the young ghost. "Don't listen to Ryan. He's playing with you."

Tori smiled brightly "So I'm not dead?"

Dana shook her head sadly. "Sadly he was telling the truth. We're all dead."

Tori began to weep, her tears freezing on her icy cheeks. Ryan giggled and ran a claw down the glass to get Tori's attention. When she didn't respond he growled and began to scratch furiously at the glass, angry that he was being ignored. Tori just shook her head, wiped away her frozen tears and curled into a ball, facing away from Ryan. Ryan huffed and crouched in one of the corners of his cell, leaning the back of his cage on the glass. He knew that this new man had collected the Black Zodiac ghosts to open the eye, but why had he brought in a thirteenth? The Sacrifice of the Broken Heart wasn't needed until the eye was being opened and they needed a human sacrifice. Ryan glanced at Tori's sleeping form, wondering what the man could want with the small, frozen ghost.


	2. Free Reign

A month had past. The ghosts were beginning to doubt they were being collected to open the eye of hell. When Cyrus had caught them he had started as soon as he had The Juggernaut.

The First Born Son tapped the glass separating him from The Hammer, trying to get the large man's attention "George. Do you think he might just be collecting us so that no one else can have us?"

George shrugged slightly, not really paying much attention to Billy "It's a possibility."

With this said he turned his focus back to where it was before Billy had asked his question. Towards Tori. She wasn't doing to well. She hadn't really woken up since the night she had arrived. She would move if one of the other ghosts tried to talk to her, but otherwise stayed curled up in her little ball. All the ghost, even Ryan, were worried about her.

Ryan scratched the glass separating him from Tori. She lifted her head and stared at him. Ryan grinned, glad he'd gotten her attention. He had been trying for the last four hours. "Tori. Do you remember how you died?"

Tori rolled over and set her key in the snow. Ryan winced slightly. The wounds on her legs had gotten worse, some had even appeared on her wrists. Tori pulled herself forward, until she could lean against the glass next to Ryan and reached for her key. When it was safely in her grip she answered Ryan's question. "I don't remember. I was in my cell in the asylum, then suddenly I was outside in the snow. I was scared so I stayed where I was, waiting for my doctor to come get me, but whenever someone came near they didn't pay any attention."

"She was murdered."

The ghosts looked up. They'd been concentrating so hard on Tori that they had failed to notice the man that captured them come into the basement. Tori whimpered softly and returned to the corner of her cube. Ryan growled and attacked the wall of glass between him and the man. The man laughed and tapped the glass door of Tori's cube. "Do you want to hear what happened to you my little Frozen Victim?"

Tori nodded slowly. The Dire Mother turned her attention to her son, she wasn't interested in how the other ghosts died. Ryan leaned his cage against the glass between his and Tori's cubes. He knew it would hurt Tori more to know how she had died, but it was her chose. The man leaned against George's cell, opposite to Tori's, ignoring him when he slammed his hammer against the glass. "You remember why you were put in the asylum?" He waited until Tori nodded before continuing. "Your precious doctor took you from your cell when you showed no sign of recovery. Figured no one would miss you. You didn't have a family. He took you into the forest, bound your wrists and ankles, tied you to a tree and raped you." The ghosts that had been listening gasped slightly and glanced at Ryan, who stayed quiet and didn't show a reaction. "When he was done he took a scalpel and cut your legs and wrists. He left you to bleed to death, but the cold prevented you from dieing that way. Instead you passed out from blood loss and froze."

Tears slipped from Tori's eyes, but like all the other times she had cried they froze before they could fall to the snow below. "How do you know so much."

The man shrugged, laughing softly at Tori's pain. "When they found your body he confessed and told them everything. Needless to say he wasn't allowed near female patents after that. They actually killed him, even though he was doing everyone a favour by removing you from the world."

With all that said the man left the basement. Tori leaned back against the glass, wiping away her tears before they could fall. Ryan watched the young ghost, concerned. He had grown attached to her in the past month. She listened to him, despite Dana's warning, and accepted his pitiful attempts of conversation. After a few moments he decided to talk to her. "Are you alright Tori?"

Tori smiled weakly, nodded and crawled towards Ryan. All the ghosts had noticed that after failing to stand the first night she had taken to crawling around her cube. She leaned against the glass. Ryan stroked the glass where her head lay, imagining to himself that he was stroking her hair. "What did he mean when he said the world was better without you?"

Tori sighed "I was abandoned as a baby. The orphanage never named me, I had to wait until I was sent to the asylum for a name. The other children all bullied me and laughed at me. The nameless freak. When I was ten I killed all the other children. Took a knife and cut them from their mouth to their ears. Gave them Cheshire smiles. A reason to laugh." She turned so she could see Ryan. "The first night I was warning you not to laugh at me. I didn't know you were already dead."

Ryan laughed softly and continued to stroke the glass. Tori played with her key. She wasn't sure why she was so attached to it, but since she had died she couldn't bear to abandon it. When she had was being forced into the containment cell she had dropped it and ran back to retrieve it, even though she was scared of the strange men. "Ryan. What do you think that man wants with us?"

Ryan shrugged. If the man wasn't going to open the eye, then none of the ghosts knew why they had been captured.

The doors of the cells began opening. A voice filled the basement, which the ghosts recognized as belonging to the man that had imprisoned them. The ghosts listened, to make sure that the cells weren't being opened as a trap. "You are being given free reign of the basement. You may do as you please to The Frozen Victim. I don't need her anymore."

Tori's eyes widened. When her cube opened she began to crawl away from the ghosts that had already been freed. The Angry Princess touched The Victim's shoulder, trying to calm her. Tori screamed and stabbed her key into one The Princess' gashes. Dana screamed in pain and let Tori go.

When the pain cleared Dana couldn't see Tori anywhere "Tori. We won't hurt you. Come back."

Dana looked backwards when she heard Ryan's cell slide open.

The Jackal stood at the opening, his head lowered. He began to laugh wildly, until the sound filled the basement. Dana looked at the other freed ghosts. They all understood the same thing.

They had to find The Victim before The Jackal did.


	3. Prey

Ryan had disappeared. The remaining ghosts had decided to split up to look for Tori and return to the cells in twenty minutes, in case someone had found her.  
Tori had crawled as far as she could in the basement. She was in the furthest corner of the basement, curled into a tight ball. She could hear the other ghosts, minus Ryan and The Torso, calling her, but she was too scared and tired to move. She knew her wounds were getting worse and she'd started to leave a trail of blood a few corridors back.  
She heard laughter and curled tighter into her ball, trying hard to ignore the urge to find who was laughing and cut a permanent smile into their face.  
Tori's eyes began to close, she was too tired to keep them open anymore. Tori cursed herself as she slipped into the realm of dreamless sleep.

* * *

He stalked through the basement slowly, trying to find what he was looking for. He growled when he heard The Juggernaut call his prey's name again. The large ghost was too close for comfort.  
Finally he found what he was looking for. A thin track of blood leading to what he assumed was his prey. None of the other ghost would leave a trail of blood, except maybe The Torso, but he had stayed near the cells in case the prey returned. He followed the path set by the blood until he came to what he had been looking for.  
The Frozen Victim lay at the end of the corridor. She was curled into a tight ball. Her breath was shallow, meaning she was asleep. It would make it much easier for him to get her.

He moved forward soundlessly and raised his claws to tear The Victim to pieces.

**Author Note: Sorry it took so long to update and that its so short. I was having trouble with my internet. I also want to clear something up. Tori isn't gonna be 'dating' Ryan. She's only ten years old (she was killed a few months after she was deemed crazy) I was gonna have slight Jackal/Princess romance cuz the Princess is nakey XD**


	4. Attack

Tori stirred from her sleep when she felt hands touch her shoulder. She murmured softly, she didn't want to wake up yet. She kept her eyes closed as whoever was touching her picked her up gently.  
Her eyes shot open when she was suddenly slammed into the cold glass wall she had been curled up against. She struggled to be released as she tried desperately to see who was attacking her, but the blow from her head hitting the wall had made her dizzy. She screamed angrily and kicked against her attacker. Her mouth was covered, muffling her screams of pain as claws tore down her face.  
Tori whimpered softly when she was dropped. She could hear growls and hisses above her. Her eyesight cleared and she saw Ryan and a ghost she hadn't seen before fighting. Ryan clawed the other ghost across it's face and with a hiss it vanished.  
Ryan turned to Tori and touched her shoulder gently. "Are you alright Tori?"  
Tori nodded slowly, gingerly touching the scratches on her face. "I wanna go home."  
Ryan tilted his head. They couldn't leave the basement. How was Tori to get home? Seeing Ryan's confusion Tori giggled softly. "I meant the cells."  
Ryan nodded and picked Tori up. It would take too long to get to the cells otherwise. Tori complained weakly before giving in and curling up against the insane ghost's chest and falling asleep once more.

* * *

**AN: I am so sorry this took so long and is so short. There's been a lot going on in my life right now. My grandfather has been dying of cancer since awhile before Christmas last yearand my great aunt very recent got admitted into hospital for kidney failure and they will both probably die very soon. I'll try to update again as soon as I can, but please be patient.**


End file.
